The pardoning legislation for the Scottsboro Boys was sponsored by Senator Arthur Orr and Representative Laura Hall.

In all, nine black men were falsely accused and convicted by all-white juries. Five of the cases were overturned, and a sixth person received a pardon. Thursday’s formal pardons are for the other three men, Charles Weems, Andy Wright and Haywood Patterson.

“It’s not in the dark stages where we started off. We have come into a new light,” Shelia Washington says. She’s the founder of the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center. It’s the only museum dedicated to the boys in Scottsboro.

She says Thursday’s decision marks a change. “Scottsboro has always had a negative name about it because of the Scottsboro Boys case,” Washington says.

Washington says she hopes the decision will make Scottsboro stand out in the nation under a different light. “I’m hoping that Scottsboro will finally take the place in history, and we are the birthplace of the civil rights, and no longer be ashamed of what happened in the thirties,” she says.

Washington says after she started the museum in 2009, she decided she wanted to do more. So she started to determine what needed to be done to pardon the last three. “The Pardons and Paroles Board didn’t have the power to do it, and the Governor didn’t have the power to do it,” Washington says.

She says it was up to Alabama lawmakers to create legislation that would allow the boys to be pardoned after their deaths. So she says she started talking.

Washington says that talk turned to actions. What’s now called the Scottsboro Boys Act was unanimously passed by the legislature and promptly signed by the Governor. “Everyone wanted to how I got the Republicans and the Democrats to work together on this and I said ‘I don’t know if I’m that good I should run for office.’ ”

Washington says the legislation saw a need. “The Governor said it’s time to correct a wrong, it’s never too late to correct a wrong,” Washington says.

Washington says a lot has changed in more than eight decades. “I think it worked because it’s a different age and a different time, where people know the truth,” she says.

9 comments

eddie braxton johhnson

Tina

No, this is not ridiculous. Those boys were 100% innocent, falsely accused, and wrongly convicted. Even Oprah Winfrey was talking about it this week in her interview about racism. This needed to be done for many reasons! One reason is to apologize to their families and the other reason is to show that this is not how Scottsboro is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v9LbnBQ9aE

eddie braxton johhnson

Clarence Norris

I take issue with anyone saying that this was a “waste” of time or tax payers’ money…as the son of Clarence Norris, who was pardoned in 1976, I am very grateful that the state of Alabama has seen fit to pardon these other men posthumously. It is too late for these men to see their names vindicated, but it is fitting that history record the truth that they were INNOCENT. All of the Scottsboro Boys suffered immeasurably as a result of being convicted for something they did not do. This is now and forever a part of history..I sincerely hope for all the other surviving relatives of these men that this gesture by the stste of Alabama brings some measure of justice and consolation to their lives….

SebDix

eddie braxton johhnson

scottsboro is still one of those places that still live in the 50’s!!..i bet u wouid add culman, arab and harselle….its more institutionalized. u know the ‘boys’ run the courts, are in the police and in sheriff’s depts, and stuff

Sarah Beth Janney

Wow, I’ve read these comments and Eddie Braxton Johnson you make me wanna vomit. To right a wrong is a just move no matter how long ago it occurred. Just because these men have passed on and it’s not effecting you personally is no reason to criticize their pardons that they deserve . What a great day for their families, Scottsboro, Alabama , and Ms. Shelia Washington!